Sea of Clouds

Several oblong airships shot out of the dark clouds one after another. The outward appearance of the airships was all worse for wear, with peeling paint and visible damage to their hull and leaking smoke from broken funnels. If one were to observe the ships closely, they would notice that there were two distinctive designs, one of which resembled the ships of the Iron Kingdom and the other was that of the Tri State.

Duchess Manarva let out a breath of relief when she saw clear skies and sunlight. Her once form fitting uniform now hung loosely over her body and she swept her hair that had grown long over her shoulder. "Finally! We have returned home!"

The crew cheered and some even cried tears of joy. They had been lost and wandered in the Sea of Clouds for many months, Duchess Manarva had stopped keeping track of time once it passed two months. The combined fleet of Iron Kingdom and Tri State ships that escaped from the disastrous event in the New World had dwindled down from twenty two ships to just a mere eight ships.

The fate of the fleet that disappeared after a fierce storm was unknown, other ships were struck down by lightning or strong winds and the remaining ships had system failure resulting in the transfer of the crew and supplies in dangerous weather.

Water was in abundance but food was heavily rationed. Thousands of stones worth of weight of magic crystals and other non essentials were dumped over to reduce weight while the rare creatures that were caught alive to be brought back to the Old World were slaughtered for their meat.

They had some rare opportunities to attempt some fishing when the storms had receded and the Sea of Cloud was unnaturally calm. A couple of airships were lost in those attempts as they floated over the ocean's calm surface, only to have a massive sea monster leapt out of the water and bite chunks off the airships.

Morale had broken down several times across the Fleet, resulting in riots and mutiny among the crew. More ships were lost to infighting and the Duchess had to abandon those ships and their loyal crew to their fate as there was no way to provide any support in the treacherous weather.

She had to resort to extreme measures to the mutinous crew onboard her flagship, by bounding the mutineers outside the boundary of the magical shielding of the airship on the spars of the wing sails and letting the vicious storm tear their bodies into bloody strips. They suffered for days until the flesh on their bodies were stripped away to the bone by the razor sharp winds. The lucky ones were the ones that died quickly under the relentless strikes of lightning.

Duchess Manarva let out a rare smile as she watched her crew broke out in celebration. She quickly ordered the navigator to locate their exact position and for the fleet to land on the ocean's surface for fishing. The crew cheerfully carried out their orders, happy that they had survived the hell like journey through the Sea of Clouds.

-----

The Old World, The Free City of Ender, Ivory Palace

"Have your Greatness decided?" Lord Lei, Ambassador of the Suugon Dynasty asked. This time, he was seated on a cushion before a table filled with delicacies and wine. The green dragon of the Dragon Lords was lying on his usual spot on the cushions and seemed lost in thoughts.

"Hmmm..." Dragon Lord Alder scratched his chin in thoughts before he said in a grave voice. "Lord Lei... My Matriarch... She has agreed to your Emperor's terms!"

A smile blossomed on Lord Lei's face immediately after he heard the announcement. He rose up to his feet and bowed deeply, "Her Matriarch is most wise for accepting this alliance! Long live the Emperor! Love live the Matriarch!"

Dragon Lord Alder stared gloomily at the bowing Suugon. He did not like the fact that the Matriarch has accepted the terms offered by the Suugon. The terms which he thought was ridiculous! Sending one of the Mothers to the Suugon Dynasty to be used in blood refining? It angered the green dragon that their kind was being reduced to such a humiliating state!

"But!" He continued reluctantly. "The Matriarch will only accept your Emperor's terms only if your Emperor ensures that our Mother will not be harmed in any way nor will she be treated badly!"

"Of course! Of course! Rest assured!" Lord Lei's smiled grew even wider as he promised the Dragon Lord. "She will be treated like royalty! And we will not strain her body when taking some of her blood!"

Dragon Lord Alder gave a curt nod before he asked, "What plans does your Emperor have in dealing with the Third Prince?"

Lord Lei's smile vanished and looked around the massive chamber before stepped closer over to Dragon Lord Alder. He spoke in a lowered voice that was only loud enough for the green dragon to hear, "We have word that the Third Prince is currently in the Cartel. Specifically, along the border at this place called the White Mountains."

"What is he doing there?" Dragon Lord Alder asked in a similarly lowered voice.

"The Greenrock Clan of the Cartel appears to be offering him some deal involving a new steam and aetherium boiler invention and he is there to talk about the deal," Lord Lei said. "But in actual fact, he is there to do some hunting!"

"Hunting?" Dragon Lord Alder's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That beast!"

"The Greenrock Clan has found a nest of Rocs on one of many caves of the White Mountains and they used the talks of the deal to cover up for him," Lord Lei said. "They used the hunt to bribe him over, knowing that he could not resist the lure!"

"Will we disrupt his plans with the Cartel?" Dragon Lord Alder asked. "Wreck his influence with his Cartel supporters?"

"Haa! No no," Lord Lei's smile returned. "We will not be doing such... things! Instead... we will destroy him by his roots!"

-----

The Old Ugly

Once the initial adventure and the sights of the Old World had faded, the endless puttering of the engines and the monotone journey made the crew of the Old Ugly restless. They had carried out constant shipboard drills for over a week when the announcement of their next stop came over the system.

Those off duty rushed off to the viewing galleries or even crowded outside the open decks braving the strong and cold winds. Before the battered airship, a mountainous range has appeared and from the distance, it looked like a wall, colored entirely in white.

Blake watched the view from inside the bridge. He turned to the communications officer and said, "Tell Icarus and Daedalus to proceed with their orders."

"Aye, Captain!" The comms officer replied and sent off the message to the two escorts. Shortly after, both ships broke formation and headed off in another direction. "Sir, Icarus sent. The Heavens watch over us. And the Daedalus sent. Good luck and Firepower protects."

Blake nodded and said, "Tell the crew to prepare for landing."

Several hours later, the Old Ugly came to a low hover at the foot of the mountain where the earth had been flattened next to dozens of other airships docked on the ground. Blake stood at the open deck of the Old Ugly and stared up at the massive White Mountains that seemed to tower into the heavens and watched a couple of airships slowing passing between two mountain peaks and crossing into the Iron Kingdom through the Iron Gate's Pass.

"Wow," Dr. Sharon appeared out of nowhere and gasped as she saw the majestic view. "This is amazing! How tall do you think those mountains go? Taller than the Sawtooth Mountains? The Himalayas?"

"Tall enough," Blake replied softly. He gestured to the parked airships around them and said, "We have to queue and wait for our turn to cross the Pass. It would take about three days or more, from what the Field Master said. The queue is quite long..."

"Hehe! So I can go shopping at Iron Gate?" Dr. Sharon grinned.

"Knock yourself out," Blake sighed. "Remember to keep some of the Marines around you!"

"Yes, Boss!" Dr. Sharon gave a mock salute and went off to gather the Marines for a shopping trip. Blake turned his eyes back to the majestic mountain range and his knuckles turned white from gripping the railings really hard as he tried to control his impatience.

-----

Iron Gate

The shadow released a groan and slumped down weakly to the ground. Prince Herod let out a grunt as he jerked the short sword out of the dead killer's chest and turned to face the rest. His guard had dispatched several more shadowy killers that ambushed him when he and his people left the pub in the middle of the night.

The alley fight in the darkness was quick and brutal, both sides grunting and cursing as they traded blades. Bodies littered the cold pebbled street as both sides fought each other. Patrons from the pub ran away when they noticed the fighting and suddenly just as quickly as the attackers came, they finished into the night, leaving Prince Herod with cuts and some of his guards dead.

Prince Herod cursed as he helped dragged one of his badly wounded guards back into the pub and yelled at the owner to bring hot water, alcohol, clean cloth and a sewing kit. He allowed one of the waitress to help clean and stitch a stab wound on his back and waited for the city's watch to arrive.

Barely half a turn of the glass went by, the doors of the pub slammed open and several city watch soldiers stormed in. The city watch soldiers wore metal and leather armour and wielded long iron capped staves. A dwarvan that held himself with an air of importance stood forward and his eyes fell on to the Prince's group and he declared, "Lock those troublemakers up!"

"You dare?" Prince Herod stood up suddenly with an angry growl and nearly ripped off the half done stitches by the serving wench. "Do you know who I am?"

"I don't care who you are!" The city watch dwarvan snobbishly replied. "Murder has been committed! By the Mountains! A crime most foul! All of you should be locked up and interrogated until we find out who the real culprits are!"

The city watch soldiers fanned out around the Prince and his wounded guards. His remaining five guards grabbed their weapons and prepared to fend off the city watch and protect their Prince. But the soldiers outnumbered them four to one and Prince Herod raised a hand up to stop his guards. "Fine! We will follow you!"

"Take them away!" The dwarvan sneered.

As the Prince and his retinue were being led away, the Prince paused just before the dwarvan and looked down at the being who was just half his height and he said in a cold voice, "I shall remember this!"

He looked up and gave a glance at the pub owner who gave a brief nod of acknowledgement before the Prince allowed himself to be escorted away in chains. The dwarvan let out an unhappy snort and turned to the pub owner and the people still in the pub and said in a threatening tone, "All of you shall keep quiet about this incident or you all can join them troublemakers in the cells too!"

The Prince and his guards were loaded up into a waiting steam wagon. The steam boiler hissed and puffed, the gears and wheels groaning and clanking as the driver set the wagon moving. Several city watch soldiers clung onto the sides of the wagon as it noisily made its way down the streets. Unknown to the Prince and his retinue, the city watch wagon did not head towards the city watch's garrison but instead took a turn that headed towards the other side of the city.